Guatemalan Court Nixes Ex-Dictator's Bid

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, July 4, 2003

Guatemala's second-highest court on Saturday denied former dictator Efrain Rios Montt's bid to run for president in November.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court of Justice said Rios Montt's appeal of a lower court decision rejecting his candidacy was "obviously inappropriate."

Rios Montt, 77, said he would appeal to the nation's highest court, the Court of Constitutionality.

Rios Montt took power in a military coup in March 1982, but was himself deposed in an uprising 18 months later. His run for the presidency violates the Constitution of 1985, which bars those who participate in coups from seeking the country's highest office.

Rios Montt's Guatemalan Republican Front party, which controls the presidency and enjoys a majority in Congress, nominated the retired brigadier general in May, but his candidacy was rejected by the electoral registry and by two lower courts.

The Supreme Court of Justice upheld those rulings.

The constitutional court rejected Rios Montt's attempts to run for president in 1990 and in 1995. In 1999, he was elected head of the single-house legislature and helped his friend, Alfonso Portillo, win the presidency.

Human rights groups say Rios Montt was among the bloodiest dictators in Latin American history. He took power at the height of a 36-year civil war that pitted leftist, largely Mayan guerrillas against the army and killed 200,000 Guatemalans. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1996.